Vigil; Killing Sherlock; Doctor Who

“Vigil joins a fine tradition of BBC One primetime dramas casually dropping political truth bombs. Back in the day, Spooks used to regularly set out the realities of dirty state realpolitik, saying things that would have been unsayable on BBC News. More recently, Line of Duty has become the nation’s favourite cop drama despite proceeding on the explicit premise that the police are irredeemably corrupt. Vigil has much to say about the secret, lucrative business that drives our foreign policy, about how self-interest decides which foreign actors are allies and which are terrorists, and about the sinister future of automated warfare. But, mainly, it is just a good crime thriller.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

Writer Tom Edge has come up with a good plot. Instead of claustrophobia, this time he plays on our fear of technology running out of control. It’s not stupidly implausible like series one, although anyone who works in the police/Armed Forces will probably watch with gritted teeth (do armed officers really shout the all-clear within one second of entering a suspect’s premises and before checking behind the door or in the wardrobe?) and you may wonder why a hitman can’t hit three slow-moving targets who are right in front of him.
Anita Singh, Telegraph

“I’m afraid I was a bit rude about the first series of Vigil, calling it a damp squib, a thriller without thrills. The main setting was a submarine, which meant six hours of claustrophobia and a lacklustre colour palette. The second series seems better so far, the drama happening in the skies and on dry land, not in the briny depths.”
Jack Seale, The Guardian

“Vigil zips along at highly entertaining speed. Jones and Leslie are both having fun, bickering together constantly but making the action sequences believable.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“There is plenty of intrigue in why the weapons test was stopped earlier than planned, who was leaking secrets from the base and why a suspect might have invented a fake cancer treatment. Vigil is still a solid, well-acted crime thriller. But I also have a sinking feeling that without its claustrophobic submarine setting, it might have lost its USP.”
Rachael Sigee, The i

“There was too much padding in this programme (the sniffer dog interlude, for instance, added nothing), but it was a cracking tale told with enthusiasm.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Prof Lucy [Worsley] donned a blue-and-white Pompey scarf to report from the pitchside at Portsmouth FC, after discovering that Conan Doyle used to play in goal for the club, under the name A.C. Smith. What a pity that Holmes himself wasn’t a footballer. Instead of, ‘Elementary, Watson,’ his catchphrase might have been, ‘It’s a penalty, Watson!’
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“It has been a long time since Doctor Who has felt this exciting, this funny, this rich, this camp, this smart, this scary, this, well, sublime. It is almost cruel to have been given so little of David Tennant and Catherine Tate – a dream TARDIS team deserving of a full series – but but Ncuti Gatwa’s charismatic new Doctor, who made his debut tonight, suggests the future is bright for the sci-fi series. What a time for to be a Doctor Who fan. The programme has never felt quite so alive.”
Stephen Kelly, The i

“We didn’t want David Tennant to go, and it was time for Ncuti Gatwa to finally take the Tardis keys, but in a twist we got both of them at once. It was no surprise, though, that Neil Patrick Harris was a scene-stealing romp, revelling in silly accents, closeup card magic and imaginative cruelty.”
Martin Belam, The Guardian